West Virginia Lands at Familiar Venue in Final NCAA Tournament Projection

It's not about how you start, it's how you finish.
For the West Virginia baseball team, they're well aware that this last month of the season wasn't good enough and it cost them a shot at hosting a regional in the NCAA Tournament.
In D1Baseball's final field of 64 projection, the Mountaineers are slated to be the No. 2 seed in the Chapel Hill regional, hosted by North Carolina. If this projection were to come true, WVU would meet up with No. 3 seed Rhode Island while the Tar Heels would square off with No. 4 Central Connecticut.
West Virginia made its first-ever super regional appearance last year after winning the Tucson regional and lost two straight to the Tar Heels to bring their season to an end.
While winning their first-ever outright Big 12 championship and setting a program record with 41 wins is a lot to celebrate, the last nine games dampened the mood. The bats haven't been nearly as consistent as they were earlier in the season, especially with runners in scoring position. And perhaps the bigger issue, the bullpen has imploded, giving a number of games away in the late innings. If those two problems don't get resolved, it'll be a brief tournament run for the Mountaineers, regardless of where they land.
The selection show for the tournament will begin at 12 p.m. ET on ESPN2.
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Schuyler Callihan is the publisher of West Virginia On SI and has been a trusted source covering the Mountaineers since 2016. He is the host of Between The Eers, The Walk Thru Game Day Show, and In the Gun Podcast. The Wheeling, WV native moved to Charlotte, North Carolina in 2020 to cover the Charlotte Hornets and Carolina Panthers.
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